Salem State Restricts Adult Content, What is Censorship?

In a report gathered today, it was discovered that previously unblocked mature content sites are now inaccessible through the network of Salem State.

Users of mature content sites will find the following message becoming frequently displayed:


Web Page Blocked

Access to the web page you were trying to visit has been blocked in accordance with company policy. Please contact your system administrator if you believe this is in error.

User: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

URL: 4chan.org/

Category: adult-or-sexually-explicit


Independent reports and tests confirm that many sites have recently been restricted access that were not blocked previously. It has also been reported that this affects users globally, whether you're staff, student, using a lab or using a personal laptop.

It is also reported that these sites are not within the same category as sites that pose security risks to the health of a network, e.g. hacking-related sites. Blocking these sites is a different topic.

The problem many people have with this is relating to maturity of content. Is everyone at a college mature enough by default to make their own choices on what they can view on the internet, or do we need an outside party to tell us what's appropriate for us to view?

This type of incident brings lots of questions of personal right to information, freedom of speech, legalities of minors, and even people who just don't care what happens. Some people hold the viewpoint that an agency should not make consenting decisions for you if you are of age. Some people believe that the sanctity of an educational institution should not be tarnished by explicit content, especially when that organization might have younger audiences using their network. Some people also believe that a large body like Salem State can make the choices they want, and we will be forced to accept those choices.

How do you feel? Should any governing agency limit your access to sites on the internet? How far does censorship go? Comment!

Edit: A copy of the User Agreement that students and guests must sign to use internet at Salem State is available at http://bit.ly/xk2wO.

House Season 6 Premiere Tonight -- Hulu, where are you?

The epically-famous House, M.D. show returns to the air tonight on a major Fox channel near you, but hopeful of being able to watch it online, I was disappointed when Hulu had nothing to say about the premiere, or even push to promote people watching it.

With such a big deal as Hulu has with the current media giants, I would have thought some kind of a release deal would have been struck to push people into watching this content on Hulu -- even if it is jammed up with advertisements. Hulu reports that "Season 6 episodes will be available on Hulu starting Sept. 29." I think this is one week too late, Hulu.

This goes to show the public that media giants are in no position for testing new convenience just yet. As everyone will gather around their television sets tonight to watch House, I will be curled up in the fetal position in the corner of my room, hoping and waiting for the day when public media starts to trust streaming video sites with their content.

Salem State releases 64-bit Vista Solution, Cisco fans scowl

You heard it here first, folks. The campus of Salem State College, which I'm somewhat partial to since thats where I take classes, has announced last week that a "major overhaul of the wireless system" is taking place soon. Major postings on campus detail that it will "cover every inch of the campus." These are pretty bold claims to hold onto. Perhaps 802.11n will be used here?

Cisco had released a VPN client for their proprietary protocol a long time ago. Their client, somewhat antiquated, ran with minor bugs on most platforms. When Vista 64-bit came around, Cisco had no desire to support the new operating system configuration, leaving thousands of high-security consumers, businesses, and professionals without a connectivity solution. While Cisco did release a subsequent Cisco AnyConnect client capable of connecting with Vista 64, clients who already purchased a site license for Cisco's proprietary protocol were locked in to using the older clients.

It has been estimated that almost 40% of the entire student body and faculty will be affected by Vista 64-bit connection issues this fall. It has also been reported that new access points have been released around campus, requiring a secure key and registration process similar to the already complicated Cisco VPN setup.

If you're a student at Salem State and you can't get on due to Vista 64-bit issue, stop by your nearest computer lab or laptop support center on campus and get yourself connected!

Personally, I feel that Cisco's proprietary IPSEC technology is overkill for student use, and Microsoft's open-form PTPP protocol would be much more compatible with cutting-edge devices on a long run, but what do you think? Comment!

Windows 7 released to students for $20!

And by $20, we actually mean $30. Sorry for the error Sweet deal. Students can get a Windows 7 Home Professional Upgrade/Install for $30 just for being a student. I purchased the offer, which offers me a download for Windows 7 after October 22. Apparently Microsoft's only offering this for a limited time, so if you have a blah@blah.edu mail account, go get yourself a copy at http://windows7.digitalriver.com!

Google corrects GMail outage; productivity levels plummit

Tuesday Google had come across an unexpected service outage related to Gmail worldwide. Service was out for almost 100 minutes as Gmail routers dropped offline.

Ben Treynor, VP Engineering and Site Reliability Czar at Google released a statement explaining that during a planned maintenance upgrade, email demand exceeded what was expected for the time, causing load-balancing servers to drop connections like a three-ring juggling clown on a trampoline, cruising down the highway at 55 MPH (admittedly, this would be a sight to see.)

"The Gmail engineering team was alerted to the failures within seconds (we take monitoring very seriously). After establishing that the core problem was insufficient available capacity, the team brought a LOT of additional request routers online (flexible capacity is one of the advantages of Google's architecture), distributed the traffic across the request routers, and the Gmail web interface came back online."

Google ensures they they are taking additional steps to make sure the problem never happens again. "... Increasing request router capacity well beyond peak demand to provide headroom... [the servers] should just get slower instead of refusing to accept traffic and shifting their load."

Google plans to release a series of updates for the Gmail network over the next few weeks to correct the flaws in the system. Let's hope that the Gmail network stays stable during these maintenance upgrades aswell!

[via Google]